Something Equally Beautiful
by HeWrites
Summary: Katara is down in the south pole rebuilding with her brother Sokka and his pregnant wife Suki. Zuko and Mai have their first child on the way in the Fire Nation. So who does that leave? Taang, duh. Set 3 years after the war.
1. Something Equally Beautiful

Rated MA for coarse language and possible lemons

Chapter 1: Something Equally Beautiful

It was a blazing inferno, a cacophony of horrors and nightmares. Aang screamed, bubbling pools of magma, lava was flowing everywhere. The entire place was made of rock, it seemed like he was in a giant cave. This was truly hell. His scream turned into something deeper, a true screech. Something more than just fear, this was something primal something that went bone deep. His scream came from the cells in him. His scream ended and tears streamed down his face. He jumped, startled when he heard Ozai laugh. He turned and looked at Aang, "What little mind games are you playing now little Airbender! Where are we, what are we to do in this hell hole? Well, two can play at this game Avatar!"

Ozai mocked Aang and then proceeded to bend his arm so his elbow was pointing downward and his wrist upward. Then straightened his arm out. His face expression changed from anger to dumbfounded.

The expression was so unexpected the Avatar laughed so hard he started to tear up. Ozai charged at him and put his arm around Aang's throat and tried to choke him, but Aang's expression immediately changed from laughter to anger. He might not be as muscular as the Phoenix King, but he definitely had the strength. He grabbed Ozai's wrist and twisted it. His eyes and the arrow tattoos around his body started illuminating and he floated in the air. His hand still on Ozai's wrist, he lifted him in the air. Speaking with the voice of all the Avatars, he spoke. "I am the Avatar! I am the balance of the Spirit World and the Earth. I am the only hope of these four nations, to ever be united again. You dare attempt to assault me! Avatar Aang was correct in his want to energy bend your firebending. You will be judged for your crimes. The hatred and misery of two nations is at your feet. The death of the Air Nomads are also your fault. What do you have to say?" Aang's voice was filled with rage. He was no longer Aang, he was all of the Avatars. His past lives all coming together to judge the need of an energy bending. There wasn't many times in the Avatar's life when a person was being judged.

"Hah!What is this energy bending nonsense!" Ozai exclaimed. "You have lost your chance to defend yourself Ozai, it is the will of I, the first Avatar and all of the existed Avatars, that you are to be punished for your crimes. The energy bending will commence, there is no lying to your energy. If you truly do not deserve to be punished, the bending will not allow it."

There was a look of true fear upon Ozai's face. He was scared. His energy engulfed him, ablaze in a fiery red. Aang's energy turned into a fierce ocean blue. The aura's battled, but to no avail. Sometimes Aang's power would slowly seep onto Ozai. But then Ozai would fight back and have his energy on the bridge of Aang. However, unlike Ozai, Aang did not spring back. Ozai was overcoming him. He had completely taken the lower half of Aang in his red energy, Aang's aura was retreating. Ozai was winning, now Aang only had his head covered in blue. The red had his left eye. All he had now was right eye shooting out a blue beam of light. It was over, Aang only had a sliver of blue peaking out. Only the center of his eye wasn't all red. Then he recaptured his eye with a blast of light, he regained his body in milliseconds. Suddenly he was attacking Ozai, he had obliterated all of Ozai's energy. Now both of them were emitting ocean blue energy. There open mouth and eyes shooting beams of energy. Aang closed his eyes. And they were back at the rock pillars. A wave of exhaustion hit Aang, but the pure euphoria gave him energy. "I've taken away your bending, you won't be able to hurt anybody anymore."

That was three years ago. Sokka had of course gotten Suki pregnant. "_Sokka?" "Yes Suki?" "I uh, well. I'm..." "Spit it out LoveMuffin." "Well, your... I'm carrying your child..." "WHAT!" "I'm sorry, I thought you-" "THATS AMAZING!" "Really? Your not mad?" "I'm not mad, I'm excited!" _

Now that she was a mother, she couldn't be a Kyoshi warrior, which was a topic of dispute. Before she found out, Sokka wanted to go back and rebuild the south pole, but Suki wanted to stay with her warriors. Ty Lee promised to take care of them while she was gone, she had really gotten the hang of the art of Kyoshi. Katara had gone to the north pole for 2 years because Master Paku had wanted her to help him train the flood of female students wanting to learn offensive waterbending. She had the secret intention of looking for a man. _"Katara, I need to tell you something..." "What is it Aang?" "Well, I'm __breaking up with you. I apologize, but I had stop liking you since we had gone undercover in the Fire Nation..." Katara's face was full of hurt and shock. "You fell for some Fire Nation girl when you went __to school didn't you!" "No, that was when I decided I wasn't attracted to you anymore, there was someone else Katara..." Her face was composed of anger and sadness. "You cheated on me!" "No! No! But I do have feelings for another person, and I don't want to lie to you..." Katara walked away, Aang felt sad for his friend's hurt, but happy that he was free to pursue the one he really loved, instead of deceiving Katara." _Aang told Katara he didn't love her a year after the events of the Phoenix King. Master Paku learned of this news and sent her a messenger immediately. He wanted to spare Katara (his granddaughter-in-law) as much humiliation and embarrassment as possible. Of course, Katara accepted and left the next day. Aang of course was a little sad she felt that driven to leave, was also glad she could spend some time by herself to think about it and cool down. Katara had recently gone back down to the South Pole, Sokka had big plans for their settlement when he returned. His construction had been slowed however. When he saw the North Pole's buildings, he expected that he would just pack some snow and have a building that would be straight and beautiful. That had not been the case. He had obviously forgotten the buildings were forged by waterbenders. So he sent Katara a message, come back! He subtly added to bring waterbenders. So, Katara came down to the South Pole with her trainees and used the building of the newborn city as training to the children. The deal worked out and Katara is able to live in her old house and visit her grandmother and her brother.

Zuko retreated to the Fire Nation, in the three years past, his relationship with Mai had flourished and the world had a new Fire Lord and Lady. Zuko had brought his nation out of the ashes better than a phoenix. His people were no longer despised, but respected and loved. The word firebender was not a feared one anymore. Mai is now pregnant and their baby is on the way (according to the servants it's surprising she HASN'T been pregnant yet with how often they hear the sounds of love from their room, of course this is all rumors anyway...). Leaving Toph and Aang to adventure the land. They had spent some of their three years traveling, they had visited Ba Sing Se once again. Toph had somehow gotten into a bet with some of the tram pushers, she had orchestrated a race between her and Chall on who could the push a tram 10 meters the fastest. All of this made possible with Toph's magical Bei Fong slip. She won, of course. From there they had traveled to swamp where Aang had first seen Toph. But, even with all of these adventures, Toph and Aang always found themselves drifting back to one of the Air Temples and slowly rebuilding all of them. This is where we find the duo at the moment.

"Twinkletoes! Wake up! We have things to do!" Toph shouted at Aang. Usually Aang was the one getting up early, which made him suspicious. "Why are you up so early Toph?" he said, his voice crackled like paper, his pitch indecisive as he questioned her. "Don't give me that look Twinkletoes, I couldn't sleep okay? Now hurry up and get a move on!" she cried. "Okay okay..." Aang sat up and earth bended the dirt he had accumulated on his skin. He waterbended the sweat out of his and Toph's clothes and walked over to her. She was tapping her foot on the ground. A normal person would've probably started a little speed walk to get to her, but Aang knew that Toph was just checking he was on his way. "C'mon follow me!" she said and sprinted down the massive hallway that had a moment ago, been their sleeping chambers. Toph reached the end of the hallway and turned to the right and ran in the door. Aang chased after and knocked into Toph on the way in. He gasped as soon as he looked around and noticed what room they were in. It was his room! Refurbished, and beautiful, Toph must have stayed up all night fixing this room! The window was perfectly shaped with no cracks anywhere! She had metalbended his old cot, so the old rusted bed was now an finely shaped mattress with a delicate headboard. "Toph! How did you..." Aang sputtered. "C'mon Twinkletoes! You thought I didn't notice your heartbeat sky rocket when we looked in here." she said smirking, glad that her plan had worked.

Aang didn't acknowledge the tears running down his face. He turned and towards Toph and looked her straight in her eyes, even though he knew she couldn't see it. "Thank you," he whispered. He hugged her waiting for her to punch him in the arm and yell at him for being so girly, or for her to call him an airhead for their proximity, but she didn't. She just hugged him back and they shared a moment. Then he let go and said quietly "I have to show you something equally beautiful."

He ran to Appa and grabbed a mirror and... set it quietly back down, deciding against his metaphorical idea. Aang had a much better idea now... Aang airbended all of their equipment onto Appa's saddle. "What are you doing, you crazy airhead!" Toph exclaimed. "C'mon, let's go! We're going to the Earth Kingdom." he stated. She stared at him, and then bent a pillar of earth under her to launch herself onto the saddle and didn't say a word. _That was easy... I figured I would need to at least tell her a little of her plan to get her to come. She's completely fine with flying that entire way, just because I said so.. Aang thought. _Aang bended Toph up onto Appa's head. He grasped the reins and gave her a portion of the rope. She took them wordlessly. Toph saw Aang grab the mirror. Even on Appa's saddle, her vibrations showed her his plan to show her the mirror, as if to imply she was beautiful. Which made her wonder even more why he put it back and where he was taking her. Deep in thought, the sudden thought popped into her head. _Aang thinks I'm beautiful..._

Hey guys! I kinda read obnoxious amounts of Taang on this website until I finally decided to write one! Please review and let me know if there is anything I can do to make my stories as great as possible! Oh, and sorry if Toph and Aang are a little out of character, I just wanted to get the ball rolling.


	2. Entertwined

Disclaimer: Has mature subject matter, contains adult themes not appropriate for children.

As well, I do not own Avatar and probably never will

Author's Note: Hey guys, it's HeWrites here, and now that I think about it, I kinda wish that I had made my name Taang related. Because I now know how much I love taang and how AWESOME IT IS! Well, I know I came out with this one late, but I had a little writers block. I spent some extra time on it with some encouragement. A nice person reviewed and a couple people story alerted me, which made my day. I can't wait for this to develop because I have big plans. :D

Well, enjoy and have at it.

Chapter 2: Entertwined

It had been an hour of flying from the Southern Air Temple to the Earth Kingdom, and it was complete silence the entire time. It didn't bother Aang though, even when they were both quiet, it was never awkward between the duo. "Toph," he said quietly. "Yeah Twinkletoes?" she answered. "I... well. I just wanted to thank you," he said. "For what Twinks?" she asked. "For traveling with me. I... without you, I would've had to house crash Zuko, or hang out in the cold with Sokka, or even be alone in the Air Temples. I...I'm just glad that I have you is all." It took Toph a long time to answer, Aang began to have the doubt that she was awake. But eventually, she crawled over to him and said "Thanks Aang, that really means a lot to me. And..." she paused. She stayed there for a while, frozen, thinking about what to say. She ended up just withdrawing from the conversation and laying down. Aang saw her shivering, so he crawled over to the tail end of the saddle and grabbed two blankets from one of the bags. He went over and placed the blanket on Toph and took his place on the other side of the saddle. He let himself drift into sleep...

Aang woke to the Appa landing on Earth Nation soil. The bison grunted as it hit the ground and immediately tried to shake off his saddle. Amazingly, Toph stayed asleep as she was thrown off. Aang quickly airbended a gentle breeze that slowed her descent to the ground. Simultaneously, he bended her bedroll over to Toph and she landed on the bedroll and didn't even twitch. He sighed in relief and turned to help Appa get his saddle off. Once that was accomplished, he grabbed some firewood and firebended it. He grabbed his roll, set it next to Toph and went to sleep. When Aang woke up he found his arm sore. Then he noticed Toph was laying on it. He looked down and noticed her arm was wrapped around his chest and her left leg was laid across the lower half of his body. He was about to try and get up and move around when he noticed her about to stir. He immediately went dead and didn't move a muscle. "Huh? Twinkletoes..." Toph whispered. She moved away from Aang gently and walked away. Aang breathed a sigh of relief. He laid there for another five minutes to make sure Toph wouldn't know he was awake. Toph started collecting firewood when her thoughts went back to their laying positions. Her faced burned red and she tried to take her mind off it. Deep in her thoughts, she almost jumped higher than an airbender when she noticed the feather light footsteps next to her. "Are you okay?" Aang asked, "Must be the first time you ever snuck up on me Twinkletoes." Toph said jokingly. Aang smiled and nodded. They walked quietly for sometime, picking up firewood until they slowly made their way back to camp. Appa grunted when they arrived at camp and Momo flew to Aang's face and launched the entire upper half of Aang's body backwards, knocking him on the ground. Toph and Aang cracked up laughing at the same time and Toph fell over laughing so hard. Eventually they fell out of their laughing stupor. Toph was still smiling and she went over and dumped her firewood on the pile. Aang lit the fire and walked over to the bag filled with there food and cooked some meat and vegetables in a pot. They sat by the fire waiting for their food to cook. Toph stared into the fire, she didn't notice Aang's intense gaze that was focused on her. Wow, Toph is beautiful, Aang thought. Toph tapped the ground a couple times silently. _Wow, puberty really hit Aang like a train,_ Toph was thinking. He had grown a head taller than Toph and now his voice was much deeper. However his feather light foot steps hadn't changed, that made her happy. She suddenly noticed the stare boring into her skull. "What Twinkletoes, do I have something on my face?" she said. "I uh, I," Aang stuttered. The silence was broken by an hawk diving from the sky onto the ground, it walked towards Aang and turned it's back to Aang. Aang opened up the tube on its back and pulled out the scroll.

**Dear Avatar Aang,**

** This is an invitation to the Fire Nation for the annual meeting of the world leaders. Representatives of each nation will attend. Katara and Sokka of the Water Tribe have confirmed the invite and I request the audience of Avatar of the Air Nomads. As well I would like to know if Toph of the Earth Kingdom will be attending as I am under the understanding you're traveling with her Avatar.**

** Sincerely, Fire Lord Zuko**

"What does it say Twinkletoes!" Toph said, waving her hand in front of her eyes to emphasize her lack of sight. Aang repeated the letter to Toph and she chuckled. "It's so funny when Sparky tries to be all formal, send him the okay and we'll head to the Fire Nation. But he knows as soon as we get there, the whole formal shebang is out the window and it's a BLOCK PARTY!" Toph jumped up started dancing not caring about the stares

Aang was giving her. Eventually her dance changed into her grinding. Aang felt something poke him in the thigh and he realized he had an erection. The way Toph was moving, it unnerved Aang. He certainly noticed Toph's curves. He DEFINETLY noticed the new bulge in her bag. One night while he she was out collecting fire wood, Aang sneaked over and looked at the new items. Sure enough, Toph was now carrying around pads and tampons. Aang backed away and suddenly was very interested in his two marbles he always spun around with airbending when he was bored. _For spirits' sake, your a monk! _Aang thought. He tried to ignore Toph and write out the return letter, but he found it difficult to do. Aang wrote out the return and put it in the tube on the back of the messenger hawk. Aang hopped on Appa and earthbended all of their things onto his saddle. Toph climbed on and sat down in the back left corner, trying to make herself comfortable. Aang sat up in the saddle to fly Appa. He was overjoyed to be en route to the Fire Nation and see all of his friends. No doubt that Ty Lee would be there. It had felt like an eternity since he had seen Sokka and his insatiable taste for meat. Suki would be there with her round belly, and Katara... Aang hoped Katara had gotten over him and that it wouldn't be awkward between the two during the party. However... he hoped Toph hadn't forgotten they still had a destination before their trip to the Fire Nation. His idea had been perfect and he knew Toph would've loved it. But of course, the Gaang's annual get together had to intervene. Whatever, he thought. In the end, he can always give Appa those Carbai berries he loves so much and keep him up all night. They would be there in no time. Satisfied with his plan, he told Appa that they were going to Zuko's palace and then settled across from Toph. Sleep gently caressed him into its gentle embrace and he dreamed of Toph.


	3. Walking

Disclaimer:This chapter is rated M for mature subject matter and mature language

as well, I do not own any part of Avatar and probably never will

Hey guys, :D

I am extremely excited to continue this story! So many nice people have reviewed and help me be a better me. It's also nice to see all the story alerts. I can't wait until this progresses. There are so many places I could go, if I don't end up liking it, I could use the first two chapters as a template and have multiple versions of the same story. Like parallel universes, if you will. Also, I am really sorry for taking this long to get it out, my life has been crazy what with school, homework, family, and what not. Anyway, thank you guys for reviewing and enjoy the chapter!

"Twinkles! When are we getting there, damn Sparky wanted to meet up with all of us..." Toph grumbled. Aang only smiled and led Appa downward to land. They landed, and Toph hopped off Appa on to the ground and laid spread eagled, chest on the ground doing her ritual. "Oh, land sweet land!" she cried. Aang rolled his eyes and earthbended a tent up and put Toph's things inside of it. He paused for a second, eying Toph's crystalline container for the perfume she had appeared to have been bought at the last market they visited. "Twinkles, what the fuck are you doing? Smelling my damn panties?" she yelled. Aang's face erupted bright red and he earthbended the entrance to the tent up and ran over to Toph. "NO!" he yelled. Toph grinned triumphantly, she walked over to Appa, swaying her hips like she saw Katara do. She was instantly satisfied when she heard Aang's heart beat skyrocket. Aang transferred his stuff into his tent and rested for the night.

Aang woke up in the middle of the night with Appa roaring in discomfort from the thunder of the rain. He earthbended his tent a little roof from his to Toph's so he could walk over to her tent without getting soaked. He rose four pillars of earth in a square around Appa and turned them into walls, he made Appa a roof and turned Toph's and his tents into rooms of a huge earthen house. He made walls to the roof between his and Toph's room and made hallways throughout their 'house'. He finally lowered his arms, exhausted. Toph walked in and said "Nice work Twinkletoes." and smiled. "Except your placement is a little off, we're a little far away."

She moved her hands in quick motions and loud earth moving sounds echoed and suddenly the wall to the right of Aang was torn down and there was Toph's things and her bed. Now they would be around three to four feet away from each other. She grinned and went over and laid down. Aang laid down in his bed, sleeping with his back towards Toph. Toph uneasily laid down and stretched out. Knowing that sleep wouldn't come easy without her nightly rituals, she tuned into Aang's rhythmic heartbeat. Toph used to always have trouble falling asleep with the Gaang... but she noticed something in her group. Katara's heartbeat was always so and constant. So steady and patient. Sokka, had heavy, rough breaths. Like his heart was doing push ups, and was angry about it. But Aang's heartbeat fluttered like a bird. They were so light, it barely seemed like he was breathing. The air flowed in and out of his body. It didn't sound like his body needed it. It was more like, two old friends embracing. It wasn't necessary, but comforting all the same. Once she had realized this, and tuned in. Aang's rhythmic heart beats became Toph's lullaby. As Toph laid in her bed, she listened to the soothing sound of blood being pumped throughout Twinkletoes' body.

"Toph, Toph. Toph!" Aang gently shook Toph, trying to wake her. She murmured in her sleep "Why can't I go with the Avatar dad... I can handle myself..." Aang shook Toph a little more, trying to wake her up before Toph said more things in her sleep. "Aang, don't... Aang," he said. Aang stopped shaking her and waited. "I... Twinkletoes, don't make me go back there. Ever..." she whispered. Aang stared at her for a long time. Eventually, he went and shook her again, waking her up this time. "What's up Twinkletoes? I'm hungry, make me food," she said with a grin. Aang chuckled and earthbended their "house" down. Appa grumbled a hello to them both.

Aang handed her some bread and began to climb on Appa. "Can we walk a little Twinkles? I think I got morning sickness or something..." Toph said. Aang agreed and put all of their things on Appa's back. Walking was a relief for Toph. She needed some time to think and flying on Appa really clouded her thoughts, as she was constantly distracted by the wind in her face and the fact she was flying hundreds of feet in the air. Snoozles was on her mind at the moment. She chuckled at her memories and thought back, to the times of the of the war. Remembering the constant process of eating small portions of rice or some nuts. Constant air travel on Appa, in Toph's other words, hell. Stuck in the Fire Nation, terrified of what would happen if any of her friends were injured. It was great. The adventure of the chase. Always hiding and fighting. Now... it was just her and Aang. Katara and Sokka they had an obligation to the tribe, Zuko and Mai had said they had no choice to but to return to the Fire Nation. And Ty Lee...

She remembered the day.

_"We'll find that bounty hunter with the shirshu!Uhh, her name was Kun or something..." Sokka had said. He jumped out of his chair, exclaiming loudly. Suki sighed, it had been three months since the war had passed and Sokka was still as hot-headed as before. "It was Jun, Sokka," Suki said. Sokka disappointingly sat down. "Guys," Ty Lee had said, quietly. Everyone had their eyes on her. The always bubbly girl had simmered down, and was now the center of attention. "Now that the war is over, I don't really have a purpose. Not like any of you guys," she said gesturing to everyone in the war meeting room. "What I am trying to say is that I can find Azula, I followed her around __before the war I and I can do it after," she said. The war room was silent everyone hadn't expected the outburst from the little acrobat. "How long will you be gone?" Aang had said quietly. "Until Azula is found. Dead or alive," Zuko said. "Preferably dead," Sokka murmured, Suki being held tight in his arms. I remember feeling Ty Lee's foot steps as she left the room. No one objected. All to shocked. The stone floor echoed her light foot steps. Nothing like Twinkletoes, who practically glided across the ground. She had a light step._

_I look back on those cat like foot steps with fond memories. As I hadn't heard them for three years..._

We kept walking. The dust road was in the middle of a huge field. It stretched on for miles, and just about 300 feet to the left and right of the two, it turned into dense forest. The peaceful walk was accompanied with the chirps of some sparrowkeets off in the distance. It was...nice. Twinkletoes was being pretty quiet as well. Aang stopped walking and then straightened his spine. He lifted his arms up until they were horizontal. Pointing out straight from Aang's shoulders. He lifted them up slowly and then brought them down, now both arms laying flat vertically on his hips. All of the vege1tation in the local area flattened to bare bones rock. He then lifted all of the water out of the soil, indented a crater in the ground and took the mass that was H2o and dumped it into the crater, making a massive lake. "Appa!" I heard Aang yell. "Go take a swim," he shouted. Eww, water. I shivered at the though of wading through that mess. Almost as bad as gross sand. I sensed Aang slowly creeping towards me. "Let's go for a swim Toph!" he said excitedly. I twisted my ankles and I was enveloped up to my shins in earth. "No Twinkletoes, water is a no-no," I said strongly. "C'mon Toph! I'll be right next to you!" he said, on the verge of laughing. "No Twinkletoes, I don't like being blind and you know that," i said. "Toph, I would never let anything happen to you," he said firmly. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted her up. i started laughing and gently started hitting him on the back as he held me on his shoulder. "Twinkletoes!" i laughed. I earthbended up a rock that Aang tripped on and fell to the ground. They both were giggling hysterically. Then we both noticed Aang's arm over my shoulder as we laid on the ground. Neither of us said anything, even though there was a audible click in our minds. I scooted closer too him and nuzzled him with my head. Aah, what the hell. It's high time Twinkles finally noticed me. He didn't acknowledge it, but instead tightened his grip on my shoulders. I lifted my head up onto his chest and felt his featherlight heartbeat quicken. I sighed and closed my eyes. Enjoying the moment. I lightly tapped the ground with my toe and felt him close his eyes to. We fell asleep intertwined that night. And for once, I wasn't cold...

I don't know, the ending was kind of a let down for me. Did you guys like it?

I didn't really know how to do it...

whatever, review and let me know please!


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